Flying with Aang and the rest of the group has been unlike any other experience. Naia learned to love the soft breeze that hit her face while in the air, or how she could see the sky so much better from up high. Naia often found herself learning against the edge of the saddle, staring up at the moon and thinking of Yue.
Just before sunset on the next day, Appa landed in a small clearing in a forest. Naia noticed that Appa was shedding...a lot. White clumps of fur littered the ground and sloughed off of him with every movement he made. Toph jumped off of the saddle and rubbed her bare feet in the fur. "I really like the campsite you guys picked. The grass is so soft."
Naia made a face, but quickly remembered that Toph was blind. Sometimes she forgot Toph couldn't see, because Toph was so independent. "That's not grass, Appa is just shedding a lot," She said.
Katara grimaced. "Oh, gross!"
"It's not gross," Aang said. "It's just a part of spring. You know, flowers, rebirth, and Appa gets a new coat."
Appa sneezed and his fur went everywhere. Naia sighed and started picking his white fur out of her long braid. Katara started coughing and almost gagging.
"It's not that bad, Katara," Sokka said. "Appa's fur makes a great wig!" He joked, piling the white fur on top of his head. Naia rolled her eyes. Aang jumped off of the saddle and placed the fur on his chin to look like a beard. Aang and Sokka laughed boisterously at each other.
"I'm glad we finally have two other girls in the group, because you guys are disgusting," Katara scoffed.
"Boys will be boys," Naia shrugged.
"Does anyone have a razor?" Toph asked. She lifted her arms and placed them behind her head, showing that she placed fur underneath her arms. "Because I have some really hairy pits!" All three of them starting laughing.
Katara and Naia exchanged looks, to which they both giggled lightly. Aang used his air bending to blow the remainder of the fur from the campsite. Once the sun dipped below the horizon, the group started setting up camp. Everyone did some form of work, well...everyone except Toph. Katara clearly seemed a little irked that Toph wasn't helping, but Naia didn't care. On the list of problems she had, Toph not setting up camp was pretty low. Tensions rose between Katara and Toph, especially when Toph was sarcastic with Katara, claiming she already had everything set up.
By the time everyone went to bed, Naia got about fifteen minutes of sleep before being woken up. "There's something coming toward us!" She heard a voice. It was Toph, running out of her rock tent.
"What's happening?" Naia asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
"There's something coming towards us, I can feel it," Toph said, placing her hand against the ground. "Something metal."
"We should leave," Aang said. "Better safe then sorry."
They quickly packed up and climbed on top of Appa again. As they flew higher, Naia noticed that about a half mile away, there was something that was causing a huge amount of dust to fly up. She shook her head and tried to make herself feel less worried. Maybe it was nothing?
"I wonder what that is," Naia thought out loud.
Appa flew for a little while longer, probably about a few hours. Naia rested her chin on her hand. She was definitely a little tired. It was the middle of the night after all. Naia already had a tough time falling asleep, so she couldn't lull herself to sleep while flying. Appa finally landed in another clearing.
"Land, sweet land!" Toph cried, jumping down from Appa. "See you guys in the morning."
Naia grabbed her bag, along with Aang and Sokka's sleeping bags in her other hand. She placed all of them on the ground and started unloading. "Actually, can you help us unload?" Katara asked, following Toph.
"You need me to help unload?" Toph asked.
"Actually, yeah," Katara said. "That and everything else. You're a part of our team now..."
Toph pointed her finger at Katara. "I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff. Icy over here is already unloading everyone's stuff. I carry my own weight," She grumbled, turning around and walking off. Naia lightly smiled at Toph's nickname for her.
Katara clenched her fists. "That's not the point! Ever since you joined us, you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful."
"Look here sugar queen! I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang earth bending. So don't you talk to me about being selfish!" She said indignantly. Toph sat on the ground and earth bended two rocks around her to form a tent.
"Sugar queen?!" Katara seethed. Toph used another rock to close the opening where Katara was standing. Katara jumped backwards, looking angrier than ever. "D-Did you just slam the door in my face? How can you be so infuriating!?"
Katara grumbled incoherent things and kicked at Toph's rock tent. Naia, Aang, and Sokka all stared at her in bewilderment.
"Should we...do something?" Aang asked.
"I'm just enjoying the show," Sokka said.
Naia shrugged, crossing her arms. "Girls fight all the time. They'll probably be over it tomorrow morning like nothing happened. I think everyone is just a little grumpy."
"Okay, okay. You both need to calm down," Aang said, trying to diffuse the situation.
Katara whipped around to look at Aang. "Both?! I'm completely calm!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Aang was clearly a little frightened. "I can see that," He slowly inched away.
"A tip for future reference, don't ever tell a girl to calm down," Naia whispered to Aang. Aang nodded slowly, still watching Katara angrily hit Toph's rock tent.
Naia laid her sleeping bag down and crawled inside of it. She sighed and tried closing her eyes. Maybe she could get just a few minutes of sleep.
"The stars are beautiful tonight, too bad you can't see them Toph!" She heard Katara sneer.
Toph used her earthbending to throw Katara into the air. She went straight over Naia's sleeping bag and landed on Sokka. Sokka angrily pushed Katara off of him. "How am I supposed to sleep with all of this yelling and earthquaking?!" He complained.
Toph emerged from outside of her rock tent. "That thing is back!"
"Well how far away is it?" Sokka asked. He laid back and pulled the sleeping bag over his head. "Maybe we can close our eyes for a few minutes."
Naia turned her head to the right and saw dust being kicked up quite close to where they were. "I don't think so," She said. They hastily packed up everything and hopped on Appa again. "What is that thing and how does it keep finding us?"
"I don't know but this time, I'm gonna make sure we lose them," Aang said. After another couple hours, Appa landed on top of a small mountain. Naia tiredly opened her sleeping bag once again, trying to block out Toph and Katara's bickering.
Momo started chittering and standing near the edge. "Oh don't tell me," Sokka hit his head against the ground.
"How did they find us?" Aang asked. "There's no way they could have tracked us."
"I can feel it with my own two feet," Toph said. Naia stood towards the edge and finally saw what was chasing them for so long. It was a large machine, however she couldn't tell who it was or where it was from.
"We should go," Katara stated, turning on her heel.
"Maybe we should face them and find out who they are," Naia suggested.
"Yeah, I agree with Princess Naia," Aang said. "Maybe they're friendly?"
"Always the optimist," Sokka groaned.
As the machine neared, it suddenly stopped. A door fell open and out came three girls riding on top of mongoose lizards. They ran up the trail that led to the top of the mountain.
"It's those girls from Omashu!" Katara exclaimed. They all readied themselves in a fighting stance.
"This won't be a problem," Toph said. "It's four on three!"
Sokka looked at her. "Actually, Toph, there's five of us."
"Oh, sorry. I didn't count you. You know, no bending and all," She said with a light smirk.
Sokka's face turned red. "I can still fight!" He hollered.
"Four on three plus Sokka," Toph said with a small smirk. Sokka was clearly angry with that statement.
As the girls approached, Toph clenched her hands and pushed them forward, creating a rock wall. The three lizards climbed over them with ease. "Well we found out who they were. Now let's get out of here," Sokka said.
The group ran back to Appa, and Toph created an even larger wall to stall them for some time. However, the girl riding the middle lizard extended her arm forward and shot blue lightning, blasting a hole in the rock wall. One of the other girls threw three daggers at them, which Toph blocked with another rock. By that time, Appa lifted off the ground once again and they were off.
Naia finally got a good look at their faces. The middle one was pretty, not one hair out of place in her pristine bun. However, her face was quite serious and intimidating. The one on the right had a long bubble braid, with a more sunny disposition. The one on the left had long black colored hair, and her face was also very serious. She was the one who threw the knives.
"I can't believe those girls followed us all the way from Omashu," Katara said.
"I still think we could've taken them," Toph grumbled.
"As if the crazy blue fire bending and flying daggers were enough, one of those girls did something that took my bending away," Katara said, a worried look flashed across her face.
"That's scary," Naia commented, suddenly intrigued. Whatever that girl did could be used for future reference. "What did she do?"
"I don't know," Katara said, her eyes full of anxiety. "She hit certain points on my arms and legs that made me unable to bend."
"Oh no! The sun is rising," Sokka complained. Naia turned her head to the left. He was right, the sun was rising just above the horizon, painting the sky an orange color. "We've been up all night with no sleep."
"We'll be okay," Naia said, trying to reassure him. "This isn't the first time I haven't slept at all during the night."
"Are you sure? I've never not slept before! What if I fall asleep and something happens!" Sokka said hysterically. Naia stared blankly at him, too tired to even think of a response. Sokka took it as a cue to calm down.
"Every time we land those girls are there," Katara said. "We'll just have to keep flying I guess."
"We can't keep flying forever," Aang said.
About an hour and a half passed and the group was still flying on Appa. The sun fully rose now as it was now mid morning. Naia sighed and stared up at the sky, actually feeling tired for once. She took a deep breath and attempted to close her eyes. That feeling faded once she felt herself starting to fall. She quickly latched onto the edge of the saddle with one hand, feeling the fear rise in her chest.
"What's going on?" Toph screamed.
"Appa fell asleep!" Aang shouted.
They all started screaming. Naia felt her hand start to slip, causing her to lose her grip. She started to float above the saddle. Sokka quickly reached out his hand and she grabbed it. Once he pulled her closer to him, Naia wrapped her other arm around his torso, burying her head in his shoulder. After a terrifying few seconds, Appa finally woke up again and flew like normal. This caused everyone on the saddle to hit it once before floating in the air again. Appa quickly descended to the ground, hitting off the tops of evergreen trees in the forest. Finally, he crashed on the ground.
Although Naia's left shoulder hurt from her body slamming against the saddle, it still didn't stop her cheeks from heating up. Naia jumped off Appa with her sleeping bag tucked underneath her arm. The rest of the group followed. "We could've gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues," Katara sneered.
Toph quickly sat upright. "What?!" She screamed.
"Everyone is exhausted. Arguing isn't going to help anything. Let's just get some sleep," Naia said, laying down her sleeping bag.
"No, I want to hear what Katara has to say," Toph challenged her. "You think I have issues?"
Naia rolled her eyes again and laid down in her sleeping bag next to Sokka, who had already done the same. The two of them seemed to be on the same page.
"I'm just saying, maybe if you helped out earlier, we could have set up camp faster and got some sleep. And maybe we wouldn't be in this situation!" Katara yelled.
"You're blaming me for this?" Toph stalked closer to Katara. "I never asked you for anything. I can carry my own weight. If you want to blame anyone, blame sheddy over here. You wanna know how they keep finding us? He leaves a trail everywhere we go!"
"How dare you blame Appa," Aang said, starting to get irritated. "He saved your life three times today! If there's anyone to blame, it's you! You always talk about how you carry your own weight, but you're not. Appa is. He's carrying your weight! We've never had this issue before until you joined the group!"
Toph's face twitched before she kicked her bag up into her hands. "I'm outta here," She grumbled.
Sokka and Naia exchanged looks before getting up again. "Guys, you can't gang up on Toph. It's no one's fault!" Naia intervened, trying to get Toph to stop walking. It didn't work, as she still walked on.
"Wait!" Sokka said, standing in front of Toph. She lightly kicked the ground and caused him to move over about three feet without breaking the earth. Sokka looked down at his feet, utterly flabbergasted. She simply walked off, refusing to look behind her.
Aang slumped against Appa and put his head in his hands. "What did I just do? I can't believe I just yelled at my earth bending teacher!"
"And I was so mean to her," Katara said shamefully. "We're all just trying to get used to each other."
"Yeah, you two were pretty much jerks," Sokka added, his back turned from the two of them while he drank some water.
"Thanks Sokka," Katara said sarcastically.
Sokka smiled. "No problem."
Naia stood up and walked towards them. "I'm sure if you apologize to Toph she'll understand."
"That sounds great, but what about the tank full of dangerous fire nation girls that keep chasing us?" Sokka asked.
"I have a plan," Aang said.
The group led Appa to a nearby stream to give him a bath. Aang, Katara, and Naia all used water bending to speed up the process. As Naia tried to move her stream of water towards Appa's head, she accidentally sprayed Sokka with water. He was annoyed, but once he saw Naia's embarrassed face he softened his expression.
"Sorry," She said with an innocent smile, walking closer to him. "I'm still learning."
Naia used the same tactic she did at the North Pole that one day and dried Sokka using her water bending.
It took a while to clean Appa completely, but the plan eventually worked. Naia just wished they figured it out sooner.
"Are you sure Appa's okay to fly?" Katara asked.
"He'll be fine, just as long as we leave the saddle and our stuff here," Aang said. He grabbed wads of Appa's fur and stuffed it into his bag. "You guys should fly to safety and look for Toph. I'm gonna use Appa's fur to make a fake trail and lead them off course."
Naia nodded and started to climb up on Appa. Appa flew upwards but hit the tops off of a couple trees. As they flew around, Naia's eyes searched everywhere for Toph. "She couldn't have gone too far."
Suddenly, Momo started screeching. Sokka and Naia looked down and saw two of the girls on the lizards, chasing them on the ground.
"Katara! They're back," Naia shouted.
"How did they find us?" Katara shouted back. Appa started to slowly descend.
"We just need to make it across that river!" Sokka said.
Katara tried to encourage Appa, who was steadily descending closer to the ground. He was barely able to cross the river before crashing on the other side. Naia sighed of relief.
However, the girls riding the lizards started cross the river. Naia jumped off of Appa's back and tried to water bend a wave with Katara. It only hit one of the girl's lizards, which she completely dodged by jumping off the lizard and landing onto the river bank. The one with the bubble braid started to leap from treetop to treetop.
The other girl came flying in on her lizard, where she threw more daggers. They zipped by Naia's head, narrowly missing it. Before Naia could even ready herself again, the other girl snuck up behind her and tried to punch her in the shoulder. Naia quickly dodged it by jumping out of the way, to which the girl lost her balance and fell over. Naia attempted to grab her katana, but the other girl did a flip over her left shoulder and punched her. When Naia tried to bend the water from the river, it seemed that only her right hand was able to. Her left arm hung loosely at her side. Her water bending was unsuccessful, though, as the other girl simply dodged it. As a last resort, Naia pulled her katana out of its sheath. She tried to jab at the girl, who was even more agile that Naia was. She dodged Naia's sword and punched her right arm. Naia's wrist spazzed out and dropped the sword, her right arm hanging loosely. It was like both of her arms were paralyzed and she couldn't do anything.
Naia whipped her head towards the right and saw Katara's hands pinned to the tree with knives. Suddenly, she saw Sokka fall to the ground, his limbs hanging loosely. "How you doing?" He asked.
"I thought when Ty Lee and I finally caught up to you guys, it would be more exciting," The one with the long black hair said. "Oh well, victory is boring."
Naia felt her anger rise with that statement. Before she could shoot something back at her, Appa's tail slammed against the ground and blew the two girls far upstream. Naia smiled at Appa.
"Thanks Appa," Sokka said. "I don't know what we'd do without you," Appa roared and licked his face, earning a groan of disgust from Sokka.